Posted on 06/11/2008 4:59:10 AM PDT by Flo Nightengale
Texas police have been standing guard outside the home of the Texas judge who ordered the removal of all the FLDS children from the YFZ Ranch. The heightened security was ordered after authorities from Utah and Arizona warned them to be on the lookout for FLDS "enforcers," the Deseret News has learned.
Every officer guarding Judge Barbara Walther's San Angelo house was provided dossiers and photos of 16 FLDS men and women whom Utah police deemed a threat. However, e-mails obtained by the Deseret News from the Washington County Sheriff's Office warned Texas authorities to be suspicious of everybody, not just those on the list.
"There are many individuals who are willing to give up their life for the cause and you can never underestimate what a religious fanatic is capable of," according to the e-mails, which were obtained through Texas' public records law.
Police were also keeping close tabs on witnesses, as the "enforcers" might try to "intimidate kids and other witnesses, watch foster homes where kids may be placed, bribe witnesses, appear at court hearings, and make attempts to contact FLDS kids," according to an e-mail from an investigator with the Tom Green County District Attorney's Office.
Law enforcement in Texas has been on alert since a Fundamentalist LDS Church-related Web site published Walther's home address and work and home telephone numbers.
Walther signed the original order to remove all of the FLDS children from the YFZ Ranch in April and place them in state custody.
An attorney for the FLDS Church said its followers are peaceful people and that law enforcement has nothing to worry about.
"Have they ever seen an act of intimidation or violence against law enforcement from the FLDS community at all, ever?" Rod Parker told the Deseret News. "Before they start spreading those kinds of rumors, they ought to be able to ID an example of them ever doing that in the past."
As for the threat to "pay Ms. Walther's home a visit," on the site www.flds.ws, Parker said the site is not sanctioned by the FLDS Church. The site is run by Bill Medvecky, a Fort Myers, Fla., man who has donated to the fund for captive FLDS children, Parker said.
Once Parker told church leaders that the post could be construed as a threat, they contacted Medvecky and had him remove the judge's address, he said.
However, Walther's work and phone numbers are still listed on the Web site. The site calls Walther the "leader of the Gestapo," and includes a link to a petition to impeach the judge.
Medvecky doesn't see the harm in publishing Walther's address on the Internet. After all, it's in the phone book, he said.
"They are not confrontational whatsoever. I am," Medvecky told the Deseret News. "They are not me, and they have nothing to do with the site. We support them 100 percent."
Texas law enforcement wasn't aware of the threat until early June, but the dossiers "regarding any FLDS members who may engage in acts of intimidation or violence against law enforcement and/or potential witnesses" started circulating April 16.
The dossiers track individuals in FLDS leader Warren Jeffs' circle of trust, as well as a few "wild cards" that make Utah authorities "uncomfortable."
The list includes Willie Jessop, who has acted as one of the main spokesmen for the FLDS Church after the April 3 raid on the Yearning For Zion Ranch. The dossier calls him — William Roy Jessop — "the most serious threat associated with the FLDS religion."
Others included on the list are Lyle Steed Jeffs, Warren Jeffs' brother; and Lindsay Hammon Barlow, who witnesses described as Warren Jeffs' "muscle," among others.
"It is very obvious that Washington County officials do not let the facts get in the way of a good story," Willie Jessop said. "These are the types of paranoid allegations that can hurt a lot of innocent people if they are allowed to go unchecked.
"I don't know what the remedy is, but it should alarm everyone when an investigator does not even bother to fact check what he is supposed to be investigating."
The dossiers include the persons of interests' last known address and possible vehicles.
Washington County sheriff's deputies compiled the dossiers by tracking individuals during Warren Jeffs' 2007 trial, where he was convicted of rape as an accomplice after performing a marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin. He was sentenced to a pair of five-to-life prison terms.
Police believe Jessop, also known as "Willie the Thug" or "King Willie" in the dossiers, is the primary FLDS "enforcer" and has a passion for violence, weapons (legal and illegal) and explosives.
On the third day of Warren Jeffs' trial, Jessop was banned from the courthouse after "it was determined he was attempting to intimidate the witnesses, after he was observed numerous (times) staring menacingly at the witnesses," according to the dossiers.
Jessop said he and other FLDS men and women who attended Jeffs' highly publicized trial were there as observers, nothing more.
"The fact that we would show up in court and then to have them turn that around on us shows how biased these public officials are," Jessop said. "There are no facts, no history of violence, not a shred of evidence to support these irresponsible allegations. Not one bit of it is true and these officials know it."
Other FLDS members showed up on the dossiers for a variety of things, from staring down and intimidating witnesses, being an active member of Warren Jeffs' security team, or holding a high rank in the FLDS Church's hierarchy.
Utah police also warned Texas officials of so-called "wild cards" or "religious fanatics," including Ruth Cooke, a woman police said is "blindly devoted to Warren and the FLDS religion," according to the dossiers.
"She is just the kind of person who may be capable of doing something crazy but justified in her head," the dossiers state.
Dee Yeates Jessop is another "intimidating enforcer" who police described as a fanatic who blindly follows Jeffs. Witnesses told police Dee Yeates Jessop is "relatively unimportant" in the church's command structure.
"His social status makes all the more dangerous. What would he do to improve his standing?" according to the dossiers.
Several other high-ranking church officials show up in the dossiers, like William E. Jessop, a high-ranking elder in the FLDS Church, and David Allred, who is involved in the church's finances and is "fairly high in the FLDS pecking order." However, the dossiers said the men were unlikely to be considered a threat, but could be involved in the decision-making process because of their positions of power.
Both Willie Jessop and Parker, who has also acted as a spokesman for the church, discounted the dossiers.
"If they are going to malign people's character like that, they ought to have something better than someone staring at somebody or looking at them funny," Parker said. "This is the same kind of rumor-mongering that I've been complaining about for a long time. These rumors tend to feed on themselves."
Of course. The source could, and should, have kept their mouth shut. Details about, or even the bare fact of, security arrangements are not something any agency responsible for that security should be blabbing about, to the LA Times, to the Deseret News, or someone on FRee Republic.
It's the media's job to try to get the story, it's not the government's job, or that of individuals within the government, to give it to them.
[As opposed to Gang Voting by Catholics (for Kennedy in 1960), or by Blacks (for Obama in 2008)? ]
If I recall, Catholics for Kennedy and Blacks for Obama are not voting so they can sidestep the nation’s laws and become a little incestual fiefdom. As I’ve pointed out before, this cycle is a repeat of Zion, Far West, Nauvoo and a number of places.
I dont remember meeting any mormons when I was in the Air force...
But after I got out and graduated from college..I took the LSAT..
The room was crowded with happy people talking to friends and wishing each other luck etc...
Suddenly just near me, a fat guy in a sloppy USAF uniform stood up and started yelling at all of us...
he said that he was in the USAF and had just flown in from Germany...(I was ashamed for him for the way he looked..too bad I was no longer in the USAF)
He said that he was a member of the “church” of Jesus Christ of latter day saints, (I could hear some of the students ask one another whats that ??? I sunk down into my seat, but he was just getting warmed up)
and that his bishop had prayed for him right before he got on the plane..that he would ace the test..
he continued..because his bishop had prayed for him he would get high points but because the rest of us were not LDS and because his bishop had not prayed for us, we would not do well at all..we may as well go home now..
The big old football players near the door started yelling back at him..I tried to sink through the floor ..they had to paqss me to get to him..
He yelled back that his bishop had told him that we were all going to fail...
Luckily the test folk arrived...
Looking back, the guy probably took the response as “persecution”, and then added the bit abouty his bishop “prophesying” our failure..(Lying for the Lord)
Oooo...Kaaaayyyy
Don't you mean that you wonder how many screen names each of them is posting under?
[Well, aren’t we all so lucky to have you here to advise us on how to think and what to study! . I will be sure to consult you in the future for my schedule and reading list. ]
Tis a shame, isn’t it. Many have reued the day they were unable to seek my advice.
[As long as you are recommending what I should let “sink in,” here is a little something else my “skull” thought up that you can make additional juvenile remarks about.]
Well, it’s not exactly skull surgery we’re talking about here.
[Until now they have not been claiming tax exempt status, but they just might change that as well and cut off a rather lucrative and steady supply of cash to the county as well.]
In other words, you are saying that the FLDS and their polygamy and child marriages are protected by their religion? And that they would bankrupt their county out of spite? Sounds like great people to have around.
[ So not only is the county going broke from their ill advised “raid” and Judge Barbara’s power trip, what money they do have is liable to dry up as well. Currently that comes to about $450,000. They paid about $200,000 last year. ]
In other words, if Al Capone had only paid his taxes, he should never have gone to jail?
[I suppose I “don’t bother” to understand a bit of simple economics either. The Sheriff and the county are making noises about confiscating the property to cover the cost of their raid and CPS wrongful custody of the kids, only to discover that hey, so far, no one has actually been arrested yet to justify that.]
Maybe no one was arrested because all the brave ring leaders split town. And since YFZ was brought into existence by Warren Jeffs, who IS doing jail time on multiple counts, apparently you believe there is not one chance in a gazillion that the same activities went on at the ranch?
[And if they think public opinion is against LE and the county now just let them take a stab at confiscating the now rather valuable facility.]
Do you mean the valuable human breeding silos in the middle of nowhere? And just think how much that hulking white shrine dedicated to a cult will go for! Maybe they can make it into a Wallmart!
[Which, by the way, if they do, will also cut off the tax money to the county. ]
I assume the FLDS use zero services AND that everyone was starving before the FLDS saved the county. By that logic, maybe we should recruit a bunch of rich islamofascists to life there so they can boost the tax base.
[It’s just one stupid move after another from them. ]
Why don’t you invite the FLDS to move into your town then, sounds like they are just your kind of people.
Ya never know . . .
I found a lot of interesting stuff at the Texas Polygamy Weblog where some of the posters are current or former FLDS. I once came across an entry there that referenced back to FreeRepublic. The blog was started in 2005 and is a great source for the recent history of the group.
FC:>> To make this more rational
NT:I was wrong, you CAN at least spell “rational”! Who knew? But why would you want to start now?
I am just curious, does this sentence mean anything, except as the type of taunt heard on the schoolyard? I am sore perplexed how to respond. Pig Latin? Perhaps a “so’s your momma is required?
FC:>> I suggest you simply list the things that you think the FLDS did wrong, that way you can never be accused of being a sympathizer.
NT: Ah, so now we’re negotiating my release from suspicion? ROFL!
I see you were unable to answer the simple request for information and thus have turned evasive as a defense of last resort. Evasiveness is typical of beehive sects like the FLDS as well, I can see how you might bond with them.
NT: Tell me, FRiend, who will evaluate this list?
No evaluation was necessary. You have stated that you are not pro FLDS, and you were asked to provide some short list of things you find them guilty of. You can squirm all you want, but if you cannot even provide one example (any example without evaluation) of something the FLDS has done wrong, then you are a collaborator. I would expect you to take pride in that position rather than dancing on a wire.
NT:Perhaps you can draw up a sample confession... er, I mean, list, and after sufficient coercion I can simply sign that one?
Actually, I’d rather see you squirm trying to convince us that you oppose the FLDS (at some nebulous level), while not being able to come up with a single thing they may have done wrong.
NT: You’re a piece of work... something right out of Orwell.
I think you are projecting, Orville was not into human degradation and slavery such as the case among the FLDS. That is apparently something you would however support.
NT: P.S. I really don’t take you that seriously.
Since you are unable to utter two sentences in a row without resorting to name calling, somehow this does not bother me.
FC:>> As far as my being a retard
NT: Hey, thanks for owning up to it, but I don’t hold your retardation against you... it takes a big, if slow, person to admit it.
Come now, NT. Do you really seriously believe anyone would consider me a retard? I negotiate with multimillionaire businessmen every day, and amazingly mental retardation has never come up (I think someone would have noticed by now).
So, I guess that was just another big gaseous taunt on your part, like a ball of methane one hopes will disperse before a match is lit. Good luck with that tactic, maybe you can impress some janitors down at the mall with it.
The best I can figure out, the guy in the picture is Willie R. Jessop, son of Glade, grandson of Vergel Y. Jessop. There are rumors Willie R. owns a strip club in the Salt Lake area.
Then there's a Willie E. Jessop who was born Willie E. Timpson. His mother was Kathy Jessop, a daughter of Edson Jessop. She was married to Alma Timpson. Timpson left the FLDS in the mid-1980s and she was reassigned to Uncle Fred Jessop and Willie E. adopted that name. He is the man Warren Jeffs said should have been the rightful leader in his jailhouse confession as to his not being the true prophet.
Willie S. Jessop, Merrill's son, is on the Bishops list as having two wives: Carlene and Tina. I haven't gotten around to researching him yet.
I don’t know. He hasn’t been in the news lately. Sheriff Doran said there are a bunch of new faces at YFZ.
It is interesting how some can read the mind of another person, via a computer.
If I was making a veiled threat, I’d like to be clued in on what I was threatening to do.
>> if you cannot even provide one example... of something the FLDS has done wrong, then you are a collaborator...
Reeeely? Is that so? Sez who? You? Hey, listen... since you negotiate with multigazillionaires every freaking day, I’m curious — do such flawed logic and asinine pseudo-clever demands work pretty well with them? Reason I’m asking is that sort of thing doesn’t work in my business, so I use real logic and reasonable demands. Maybe I’m doing it rong.
>> Actually, I’d rather see you squirm trying to convince us that you oppose the FLDS
Me squirm? NO thanks. I don’t care what you believe. I do know what I believe, and God knows too, and that’s all that matters to me. I do now know that you’re a know-it-all blowbag who in reality doesn’t know jack about me. I also know I don’t want to be a member of your cult of hatred and tyranny and crappy logic. Eww. Ick.
>> I think you are projecting
Not really, but reading your excrement brings me near to projectile /vomiting/. That’s close to projection, I guess.
>> Do you really seriously believe anyone would consider me a retard?
Do you really seriously want me to answer that?
>> I negotiate with multimillionaire businessmen every day
OK, ok! You’ve convinced me; now I don’t seriously believe you’re just a retard. I believe you’re an arrogant blowbag retard that negotiates with multimillionaire businessmen every day.
Cheers!
No Hitler, Nazi, Gestapo etc. references.
And the Constitution was never in jeopardy. Why just a few days ago we had a post which declared that the Texas SC saved the Constitution.
I believe the judge made the right decision. Those kids would have disappeared if they had not been taken at that time. Now they are not allowed to leave the State for some time. At least my side has some common sense. I have no illusion that everything CPS does is the right thing. But I am not ignorant to think they went in there and just willy-nilly started rounding up kids and putting them on buses, just like Hitler rounding up the Jews.
Some here at FR have thought that.
>> A view I can respect. No Hitler, Nazi, Gestapo etc. references.
Well, if you really respect “San Jacinto”’s view — I happen to agree with it as well — then “child molester defender” and such are also out of bounds. Yes?
The laws you say they want to sidestep are not local laws, and not enforced (exclusively) by the local sheriff, Chief of Police, DA and judges. They are state laws, and in some cases may be federal laws. The actions against those at the YFZ "compound" were not by the local sheriff although he was on hand. The actions were by the Texas Rangers, the Texas CPS, and a Texas district judge. Do you think they are going to take over the whole state of Texas?
Molester Defenders is entirely appropriate.
Cause thats just a fact of what has happened.
Never said their was, just that they were disproportionately represented. The only ones that I knew were Mormons, although I'm sure there were others, I met at ROTC field training, that included the first of my two roommates. (Two man rooms, switch roommates halfway through).
No one has been charged, thus no trial yet, and no trial court. What you mean is not the trial, but just a temporary custody hearing. One where the state got to present it's assertions, but the other two sides, children and parents, got very little chance to refute. No one got to judge that evidence, except the Judge who was over ruled by two higher courts, who said the evidence was insufficient even for the limited purpose of the state retaining custody of the children.
The other folks involved will get chances to refute later, as they should have in the first place. They'll get it again if and when there are criminal charges and criminal trials.
>> Molester Defenders is entirely appropriate. Cause thats just a fact of what has happened.
You are really something special, aren’t you.
Bluster has not been lacking on either side. Even the most vociferous critic of the state’s action should not be labeled as a “defender of child molesters”. I know there have been lots of defenders of the “rights” of the flds members, but I don’t recall seeing defense of their practices per se.
On the other hand, there are many who go too far, IMO, in attacking the trial judge and the “system”. Reasonable people should have concern over the welfare of children in the care of flds because those people are whacky — pure and simple. In fairness to the trial judge, the SC was not unanimous in overruling her. Justice Meyers would have upheld the order as it related to pubescent females— mainly due to members allegedly stating they supported the child bride beliefs of the sect, along with the alleged failure of the flds to give correct names and birth history and the like.
My issue with the trial judge was my belief that the evidence burden for these ‘emergency removals’ is very high and requires specific evidence of present danger and not generalities. I did not think it was there.(My wife disagrees, btw. The fact that the women are zombies is enough for her. They are obviously under the influence of the evil men-folk, according to her.)
We will see how the case proceeds now that it is beyond the temporary or ‘emergency’ stage. The CPS is over budget and is going to have a helluva hard time getting evidence.Their case may never come together. However, if proof of sex abuse or proof that kids can be ‘reassigned’ to a new family at the whim of some leader, then the CPS should not be counted out. At the very least the flds is going to have to disvow these most controversial practices, hopefully for real and not just on paper.
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